Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Tandem ride with Rachel

Abram, Rachel and I took a bike ride on November 15th. Abram and I have a 18+mile route we do near the house. We took Rachel out on the tandem, but shortened the route a bit. I suggested that we ride by Isaac and Jenna’s house to see if they could take a picture of us. Isaac was home, so we got lucky. Rachel had fun and does help to pedal much of the time. She says she likes the tandem because she can get a drink from the water bottles we have in the cages on the bike when ever she needs one! That was a huge priority for her. I believe that we biked 12 miles. Rachel says "it was 12.8 miles!" It was her first real experience pedaling on the hills.

Rachel had a scary experience after we left Isaac’s house. A small dog ran out her yard and chased the tandem. I know it was a female because the owner was yelling “Come back Tinker Bell”. The dog was too little to bite Rachel, but Rachel was very scared to have dog chasing her like that. I stayed far behind them because I was afraid of running into or over it. Many riders have been terribly hurt from dogs running into their bikes. Once Tinker Bell was too tired to chase Abram I was close behind and she began chasing me. It is not fun to pedal quickly in order to out run a dog and also be concerned that they are going to be hit by cars. We were on a main road and the dog had no sense to look for cars.

Aside from the dog experience, Rachel had a great time. She loves to ride with us. It is great to have a child who likes to ride. Carmen enjoys riding the tandem as well because she can go really fast!